Dear LiZzIe

My Dear precious Lizzie,
So you are now 5 years old. Wow it has been so amazing being your Mom. I am forever grateful that you are my first child. You have made being a mother challenging and yet incredibly joyful. You are doing so much right now, but that's how you came to this earth. I could tell from the moment you took in your first breath that you took so much in with each breath.
I'm so proud of you and the good choices you are making so early in your life. I would love to say it's because I'm a great mother. I do try my best to teach you right from wrong, and I try to help you remember who you are but a lot of your choices come because you know. I worry already that people are going to try to strip that knowledge from you and every time I send you out into the world I secretly hyperventilate until you come back to me. But as we visited your preschool this past week and listened to your teacher talk about you my heart was so filled with joy. She told me that you were a leader, and not the snotty kind of leader that tells people what to do. Instead of telling people that they are doing things wrong you help them. You let them know how great they are and still help them learn things the right way. You reach out to those around you and are kind to those who need it. She told me about how smart you are and we already knew that and there is much that we can do to help that continue but above all your academic skills what really means the most to me is that you are staying true to who you are. I never thought it was so possible to feel the spirit so strong come from a 5 year old girl but as I try to teach you things and help you learn and grow I feel the spirit all the time. I know that you are learning quickly and for a very important reason.
I hope you can stay a little girl for a little while longer. That is why I don't let you watch Hannah Montana, I'm sorry if it's selfish but I want you to stay as pure as possible for as long as possible. I love watching you play dress-up. You are such a sweet and proper princess that it really cracks me up. So if you don't mind I'm going to let you indulge in the sweet things for awhile.
You are such a kind sister. Much kinder than I ever was. You think about how everyone feels and truly want everyone to be happy. I've seen you sacrifice things that on an adult level may not seem like much but to a kid I know it means a lot.
You are my big helper. I really will panic when you go to kindergarten next year. I marvel at the things I ask you to do and that you actually do them. I don't know if all 1st borns are this way but you are incredibly responsible and amazingly mature.
You have a way about you that draws people to you and people recognize immediately who you are. It's always been that way but as you get older it gets stronger and stronger.
I see you take pride in what others say about you and I worry sometimes that you might need that too much. Don't worry about what others say. You are enough on your own. It's nice to hear nice things but be strong enough to be able to go on without it.
Most importantly remember who you are. You are a beautiful daughter of God. As long as you live up to that potential you will never have to worry about anything. It's not always easy. People, things and sometimes even yourself will want to pull you down but you, my dear daughter, can rise above it all.
I love you so much and will forever be grateful that you have been in my life. I look forward to the next 5 years and seeing how much more you can grow. I'm proud of you. And hope you know how much you mean to me.
Love Forever and Ever
Your Mom

Candy Bar Pops

1 bag of funsize milk chocoalte covered candy bars with some chewy caramel center cut in half
32 craft sticks
1 box of cake mix
1/2 of vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 of powdered sugar or colored candy sprinkles

Heat oven to 350
In large bowl beat cake mix oil, egss until smooth


Peirce each candy bar half with craft stick

For each cookie pop form 1 rounded tablespoon (a small scoop for papmpered chef people) flatten in palm of hand.
Place candy bar on dough and form dough around candy making sure to seal all sides.
Roll in candy sprinkles
Place on cookie sheet (if your using a cookie sheet line it with foil or parchment paper but I will forever use my stones.)
Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes. Let cool on sheet for 2 minutes remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack and completely cool about 30 minutes. Wrap in plastic and tie with curling ribbon.

So cute and simple and delicious. Love it.

The secert is in the shoes.

Dear Payless Lady,
You were so helpful today and honestly you should get an award for being so happy. But as you left to go pick up my online order from the back of the store I had to hide my terrible secret. See while you were helping the lady in front of me in such a friendly fashion I noticed that my two year old had somehow houdinied her way out of her diaper and it was clinging to one leg by the miracle of her adorable shortalls. As you went to show the lady the adorable hot pink heels in the freakishly large women's shoe size I quickly removed the diaper from my baby girl's leg and descretly jammed into my stuffed to the gills purse. You came back and got my name and said with such a cheery smile that you would be back in a giffy. I prayed that you would hold to that because I knew I had a tickin' peeing time bomb. But as I got lost in the women's shoe section (I so desperatly need a new pair of black heels) I heard the words "Mom, potty." My gaze fell to the wet stuff dripping down my girl's leg and noticed a little splashieness in her adorable pink plastic shoe. Just then you appeared from the back room. I quickly scanned the floor and saw a mini and by mini I mean maybe a few droplets size puddle and just happened to scoot a box over it. I took the shoes from you and quickly signed the paper hoping you wouldn't notice my girl's pee wetted shortalls (still cute even with a mini pee mark) You asked so kindly if you could put the shoes in a bag for me, I hesitated and had a mini-debate in my brain whether I should tell you or not and then just shook my head out of a pure dummy mommy moment caused by my girl splashing her feet in those adorable plastic pink shoes. As I carted all three of my children out of the store as quickly as I could I wondered if the few pee droplets would stink up your store. I wondered if maybe that would take your customer service down a notch and felt really bad about that. So I hope really that you didn't notice the mini puddle under the shoe box and I hope that you still keep helping people find the shoes they need and pointing out adorable hot pink heels in freakishly large sizes. And I hope that you might be able to forgive me for being an embarassed mom that just had too much on her plate for one day.
Anyhow Keep smiling,
Andrea
p.s. let me know if those adorable hot pink heels come in my size. Thanks ;)

What do you do.....

With 16 cups of Shredded Zucchini? My next door neighbor brought over a zucchini the size of my arm plus a few inches thicker. So I shredded it all and went to town making bread and cake. And that still left me with 8 cups of Zucchini. So I froze the rest but I thought I would share this killer awesome cake recipe. I put a cup of milk chocolate chips in the batter and then a cup of semi-sweet on top. Then sprinkled powder sugar for show. Serve it with a scoop of ice cream and yummy yummy. It's a good thing I'm running like crazy now or I'd be a good 15 lbs over weight from this cake alone.
Click here for the recipe.

Confessions and Milestones

So short little post. I need to confess something. Sometimes I wait to go to the bathroom until Jeremy gets home from work just merely for the fact that it's the only time I can be all by myself for a little while. It's like a little get-a-way from the kids moment. I can shut the door and not have to worry if any of the kids are choking on polly pocket parts, or smearing butter like finger paint all over the walls, or deciding they're hungry and emptying the refrigerator shelf by shelf only to remember that they don't like healthy food.
And my own personal milestone today I ran/walked 6 miles today! I walked the 3 before dinner with a friend and then after dinner ran 3 with a different friend. The best part was we ran the 3 miles well under 30 minutes. I think I'm getting closer to my target weight if I only had a scale to really see. I feel better and I'm starting to look better in my pants. My goal is to be able to fit into a nice pair of skinny jeans by my birthday which is ps 7 weeks away. Anyhow I feel really good right now and thought I'd post it.